The Corsican pine is native to Corsica and Southern Italy – growing on the flanks of Mt. Etna for example.

It is one of several black pines which have distinct geographic distributions and differ is quite subtle morphological features including leaf length, cone length and bud scales. Plants of the World Online list 33 synonyms indicating considerable taxonomic confusion in the black pines. This confusion seems to be ongoing.

This subspecies of black pine (previously called Pinus nigra maritima) was thought to be of a better growth form than the other black pines and was planted extensively by the UK Forest Commission from 1919. It is tolerant of exposed situations and is tolerant of drought so has potential in our warming climate.